Sony's Crackle sees mobile users 'snacking' on video content

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Philip Lynch, who oversees content for Sony's Crackle online video site, said users visiting the service through TVs typically consume more than two hours of content in an average session. He also said users accessing the site from a mobile device typically spend 18 to 25 minutes watching videos, and users on a PC typically watch videos for around 1.5 hours.

sony crackle Philip Lynch

Lynch

Importantly, traffic to Crackle breaks down relatively evenly across those three platforms, Lynch said, with around a third of Crackle's users accessing the site via a mobile device, another third accessing it through a PC and the remaining third viewing Crackle from a Roku, Xbox or other TV-connected device.

"We're seeing very different usage patterns" depending on a user's device, Lynch said during a keynote panel here at the OTTCON conference.

Lynch did not provide any other metrics, including the number of Crackle's users, nor did he provide details on the usage statistics. However, the usage patterns on Sony's Crackle site align generally with what other online video providers have found in recent months: Viewers are expanding from PC-based viewing of online video into watching such content from TVs and mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

Lynch, SVP of digital networks and games for Sony Pictures Television, described Crackle's mobile users as interested in video "snacks" of up to half an hour in length. He said the site's mobile users will often pause a video and then resume watching it several days later. Meantime, he said those users accessing the site through a TV will often spend enough time on the service to watch a full-length movie.

Crackle is a "multi-platform next-generation video entertainment network" built to mine Sony Pictures' library of television series and feature films in addition to the libraries of other studios. The site offers a variety of content including movies like "District 9" and "Harry Brown" and TV shows like "Rescue Me." Crackle earlier this year announced an expansion onto LG, Samsung and Vizio smart TVs, as well as to Samsung Blu-ray players. Crackle most recently announced it would expand to the PlayStation Store.

For more:
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